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For Instructors

Overview of all tools and technology to aid your teaching

Tools & Technology

Teaching remotely can be a daunting challenge. Thankfully, you have access to a variety of user-friendly tools to help make the transition easier. This page covers technology that is useful across a broad pedagogical spectrum to improve remote teaching and learning.

Browse the toggles for topically organized resources and check out the guides below for answers to frequently asked questions. For additional tips on interacting with students online, see Engaging Students on BYU’s Teach Anywhere website.

Resources

Toolkits & Templates

This section can help you build an online or hybrid class from scratch or reformat a part of one for online teaching.

Rooms & Hardware

The university has several resources to meet your hardware needs this semester for everything from live streaming lectures to renting camera and audio equipment.

  • TEC Rooms: Short for a Technology-Enhanced Classroom. These rooms are available to rent on campus and are equipped with smart TVs, microphones, and other hardware to help you teach. Learn more here.
  • HBLL Media Lab Equipment Room: Check out cameras, audio recorders, and other professional-grade equipment. Learn more here.
  • HBLL Equipment & Tech: List of all hardware available for HBLL patrons. Learn more here.
  • BYU IT Surplus: Free laptop, desktop, and monitor rentals for Fall 2020. Available to faculty and students on a first-come-first-serve basis. Learn more here.

Learning Management Systems

You can choose from Canvas or Learning Suite as you build your class. More information on LMS at BYU’s Teach Anywhere website.

  • Learning Suite: This year’s update features Learning Path, which allows you to sequence class materials based on dates, topics, or weeks. (Keep in mind, however, that you must have all content on LS before you turn it into a Path). The LS Instructor Help website offers LS basics, content, Digital Dialog, exams, BYU grades, Learning Path, scheduling, and syllabi.
  • Canvas: You have permission to use this alternative to Learning Suite as a platform for your course. This is a great tool if most of your class is asynchronous or online, or if you would like to revise your students’ experience as you go.

Learning Management Systems

You can choose from Canvas or Learning Suite as you build your class. More information on LMS at BYU’s Teach Anywhere website.

  • Learning Suite: This year’s update features Learning Path, which allows you to sequence class materials based on dates, topics, or weeks. (Keep in mind, however, that you must have all content on LS before you turn it into a Path). The LS Instructor Help website offers LS basics, content, Digital Dialog, exams, BYU grades, Learning Path, scheduling, and syllabi.
  • Canvas: You have permission to use this alternative to Learning Suite as a platform for your course. This is a great tool if most of your class is asynchronous or online, or if you would like to revise your students’ experience as you go.

Zoom

Mastering this ubiquitous video conferencing platform is a must in today’s world. If you haven’t already, check out the easy-to-use Zoom BYU website.

  • Basics (5 minutes): How to set up a Zoom class, created specifically for BYU instructors.
  • Cheat Sheet: Printable how-to and checklist for account setup, settings, scheduling, and what to do when you’re in a Zoom meeting.
  • Best Practices (38 minutes): More in-depth video tutorial for instructors new to Zoom.
  • Security and Classroom Management: How to increase classroom security, set up passwords, restrict participants to students only and reduce class disruptions.

Useful Zoom Functions Videos:

Annotation and Whiteboard tools

Notabilty: Combine handwriting, photos and typing in a single note. Use a wide range of note-taking and sketching tools. You can even add and annotate PDFs in Notability. Our faculty use it during class to annotate class lecture slides (converted into PDFs first).

Jamboard: Sketch your ideas whiteboard-style while benefiting from the access and connectivity of an interactive canvas. Drop images, add notes, and pull assets directly from the web while collaborating with team members from anywhere.

“It allowed students to interact on the white board at the same time, but it also allowed students to move into breakout rooms and engage and I could monitor what they were doing by what they were writing on the Jamboard.” – CPMS faculty member

Hypothes.is is an open-source online tool that allows teachers and students to “write in the margins” and comment and discuss online information. Read more on Teach Anywhere.

Polling & Discussions

Software to help you involve your students in class and assess their understanding of course material.

  • Zoom Polling is a feature that enables you to set up polling on Zoom.
  • Bungeelink is an online polling tool is free and can be used for both in-person and remote learning.
  • Kahoot allows you to choose from a variety of trivia templates to create quizzes and other formative assessments.
  • Factile can help you create your own Jeopardy-style game.
  • iClicker Cloud is a cloud-based classroom response system that allows you to poll your students and engage them with your course content and with each other.
  • TurningPoint is a comprehensive audience participation platform, not only provides live polling and interactive homework capabilities but also lets you conduct unlimited surveys for insights into the minds of your students. Even better, a simple interface—along with the ability to respond using a cell phone, tablet or computer—means that everyone can get started right away. TurningPoint is being piloted this fall at BYU. Teach Anywhere Training on TurningPoint.

Assessment

BYU offers two proctoring services (Proctorio and LS Simple Proctor) to monitor online exams.

  • Proctorio: A platform designed to maintain remote testing integrity and eliminate proctoring. See the Proctorio Frequently Asked Questions and support for help as you use the service. See BYU’s Teach Anywhere for more information on this tool.
  • Learning Suite Simple Proctor: The simple proctor takes pictures of students, keeps track of when students leave or return to the LS exam tab, and records when the student finishes and submits the exam. Learn how to set up Simple Proctor.

GoReact is an interactive online platform for feedback, grading, and critiquing of video assignment. Check out this Teach Anywhere training on GoReact.

Content Creation

BYU’s Center for Teaching and Learning, HBLL Media Center, and the Copyright Licensing Office can help you create audio and visual content for your class.

  • The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has Animation/Visualization Services to help you create two- and three-dimensional animations for your class. A video production team can help you record lectures, presentations, and demonstrations and help you script, shoot, and edit short instructional videos in Audiovisual Production.
  • The HBLL Media Center can help you prepare and edit videos and other media. Here’s a list of services the center provides:
  • The Copyright Licensing Office has several materials to help you keep your content fair and accessible. Use this Decision Trail to quickly help you understand what media you can use for your course and how to properly attribute it.

Guides

Recording Lectures

No matter what teaching modality you use this semester, prepare for these special considerations by learning how to record and stream your lectures. Here are some resources available to you to help you record instruction time.

  • Live streaming for blended classrooms. The university will provide Technology-Enhanced Classrooms (TECs), many equipped with HD cameras that are adjustable for live streaming (for a list of these rooms click here). The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) can record your lectures as you teach in a classroom. Contact Kenneth Plummer (the CTL’s consultant for our college) for more information. To learn more, check out Blended Classroom Technology on BYU’s Teach Anywhere website.
  • Audio or webcam voiceovers. Learn how to record a PowerPoint slideshow with narration. 
  • Capturing your screen. Recording lectures on your screen comes in handy for flipped and asynchronous classes.
    • The Internet is full of free recording apps like Ezvid or TinyTake, both of which are trusted free screen recording software. If you use a Mac, you can record your screen using QuickTime.
    • Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) allows showing/recording multiple software apps concurrently (including PowerPoint and using an iPad as a whiteboard). You can easily control how they are viewed by the remote participants. One BYU professor who uses this software for research lab meetings and lectures made this 5-minute tutorial on the basics of OBS software.
    • Consider investing in a paid app if you want to record embedded videos or separate webcams, edit or add visuals and sound post-production, or export your content to multiple formats. Filmora Scrn ($29.99) offers most of these features at a low cost. If you frequently record classes with different types of multimedia, consider Camtasia ($249), which comes highly recommended by department faculty.
    • Unsure about what will best suit your class? Check out this article for a comparison of twelve paid and free software apps. In this video, BYU Professor David Lignell demonstrates how to record your screen using the free Open Broadcaster Software.

Tips for Recording Lectures

Feeling confident about how to record your lectures will help you feel more prepared.

Remember that you don’t have to invest your time and money in producing immaculate instructional videos. Check out this page on BYU’s Teach Anywhere website for help with producing simple presentations for your class.

Keeping Track of Attendance

Here are some ways to take attendance in an online or hybrid setting.

  • Generate usage reports in Zoom. Track attendance in Zoom with the usage feature in Reports. Check out this straightforward tutorial that shows you how to track attendance using Zoom reports.
  • Embedding a QR code. Create a Google Forms survey that asks students to provide their name and indicate if they are attending class. Instead of giving out the link to the survey during each class, generate a QR code for the link that students need to scan and fill out if they are present. You will have to generate a different code for each session or use a dynamic QR code. More information is available in this tutorial. To increase student engagement, vary where you embed the code from presentation to presentation.
  • Participation activities as attendance. Use your preferred polling or quizzing software to track attendance. One instructor asked discussion questions during class and had students reply in Digital Dialog (a list to the right indicates which students have responded to the question). Tracking formative assessments (i.e., pre-class, exit, and pop quizzes) and replacing attendance credit with participation points are good alternatives to taking attendance.
  • Self-reporting in Learning Suite. You can also ask students to report attendance in Learning Suite. Share this guide with your students.

Using a Virtual Whiteboard

Although Zoom has a basic whiteboard feature, you may need to use a whiteboard with higher resolution or additional features. Here are several solutions for displaying detailed whiteboards, diagrams, or notes in class:

Whiteboards. These are some recommended online whiteboard apps that have free or low cost subscription options. We’ve listed the most important features for each app below.

  • Google Jamboard has a simple outlay and crisp lines. You can insert sticky notes and pictures. There is also a tool for indicating motion and you can share and edit your boards with others.
  • Explain Everything allows you to narrate as you draw on the whiteboard and add media or notes. Students can collaborate and create their own presentations. More information on pricing here. 
  • Limnu features realistic whiteboard sketches, endless canvases, and will soon be integrated with Slack. More information on pricing here.
  • Miro has the most features of the online whiteboards we reviewed. Although it is geared more toward businesses, it works great for classes that are heavily focused on collaboration. More information on pricing here.

Hardware. You can draw, diagram, or write notes more easily with tablets or documents.

  • Wacom Intuos tablets sense pressure at your pen’s touch and can upload digital versions of diagrams, notes, or whatever else you create. See how it works. Watch how this teacher uses a Wacom tablet, Zoom, and Slack to teach math.
  • Document cameras can capture detailed handwritten notes. You can stream this video live through Zoom by clicking on Share Screen—>Advanced—>Content from 2nd camera. This is perfect for writing complex functions that students can easily see.
  • Mounted smartphones can act as document cameras to display what you’re writing on a notepad on Zoom. Learn how to turn your smartphone into an extra webcam.

Creating a Virtual Lab

Redesigning a lab for online learning is one of the most complex tasks of instructional design. Backwards design can help you restructure labs given the constraints of online learning. For example, instead of designing your labs from scratch, first identify what students should learn from each lab and then revise the lab process to reflect learning objectives. Here are two ways you can transition your lab to an online or hybrid setting.

Flipped labs. The instructor (or a TA/RA) performs the experiment in the lab and students observe and participate remotely. The key to a flipped lab is how involved the students are in the experimental process. Here are three general ways to conduct a flipped lab:

  1. Livestream an experiment. Ask students to make decisions about what should be done next, just as they would in a lab. They can answer timed questions during the livestream using Tophat, Learning Suite exams, or a Zoom poll.
  2. Prerecord longer experiments from start to finish. As you record, leave out or hide information about measurements, variables, or steps. Have your students watch the experiment on their own time and turn in a worksheet or summary of their calculations of the missing data or an analysis of how the experiment worked.
  3. Ask students to design an experiment and submit a proposal. Students can work with each other or the instructor to write instructions for the experiment. During labs, livestream the experiment. Discuss the effectiveness of the experiment’s design and its results.

Projects and simulations as labs. If your teaching objective is to increase your students’ familiarity with or fluency in the material—and not necessarily the experimental process—consider assigning projects or research activities. Some examples include meta-analyses, literature reviews, and visual presentations. You can also pair tasks with open source collections (such as iNaturalist or Zooniverse) to encourage scientific inquiry. PhET offers over a 100 STEM interactive simulations geared towards general undergraduate courses. Read more about this service.

Here are a few useful articles as you set up and run your research lab fall semester.

  • This Inside Higher Ed article gives some examples of what institutions and people are doing about their research labs.
  • Check out the Council on Governmental Relations independent review and resources page for federal awards.
  • Johns Hopkins COVID-19 research response hub and program.
  • How to Quickly (and Safely) Move a Lab Course Online is an article written by The Chronicle of Higher Education. 
  • Vanderbilt University has provided this guide for planning lab projects online. The guide includes resources for any type of lab participation including experiments, data analysis, and scientific literature.
  • Online Resources for Science Laboratories is a collection of resources for teaching university lab classes online.

For Instructors

Setting Up Your Course
Managing the Virtual Classroom
Disciplinary Resources
Assessment Ideas & Resources
Working with Teaching & Research Assistants
Tools & Technology